US Presidential Election 2012

'deside its president from votes from all the countries in the world'- Norc

That would make America the worlds governemnt- which is I am sure you willl agree Norc a bloody terrifying prospect- they are bad enough now when they just think they are.

Although if we did get a vote there would have been no Bush years. (And I dont mean the 70's )

I think the thought was more in the lines of the world having something to say in the election, not to accept who-ever as President of the World.

Thank you Amarië. Mitt Romney is an idiot. We don't want idiots saying things that aren't thought that well through. especially when USA is involved in almost every conflict in this world.

Disappointed to see the Democracts seemingly running scared and putting a reference to God back in (not a big deal really) and stating Jerusalem is the capital of Israel (this one I do object to and its bloody dangerous talk to).
I find that last one odd as the Obama administrations official position so far has been the much more sane 'it is up too Israel and Palestine to decide between them'.
It should not be allocated by the West to one side or the other for political expediency.
Very disappointed.

Were the Democrats planning to do something different? Neither of those are particularly out of character for either party.

Apparently it was a formal amendment to the party platform. Extremely disappointing even if it's not surprising.

I dont mind 'god-given rights'- its just a meaningless phrase and 'naturally evolved rights' doesn't have the same ring to it.
But the Jerusalem one flies in the face of the negotations for a peaceful settlement- why will the Palestinians even want to continue with negotiations if the US is arbitarily going to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel without any discussions at all just for a bit of short-term political gain?

It's simply got to do with the process of putting "planks" in political "platforms", which by the way are less binding than a handshake.

There are at least two traditional subgroups of the Democratic Party that historically feel very strongly about Israel: the Southern Democrats, and the Northeastern Jewish community. Both these communities have historically tended to vote a straight party-line ticket out of party loyalty and when they feel angry or betrayed they don't come out to vote, or worse, they become "Reagan Democrats" and cross over to the other party, sometimes never to come back.

I believe the Jerusalem language is quite old, it was just suspended in 2008, and considering how disastrously 2010 went for the Democrats in the Congressional elections, it's not surprising they've restored the language.

Do you think maybe the Palestinians would rather have Romney?

I cant imagine Romney would be the candidate of choice with Palestinians, no.
But then I dont know if Romneys beliefs come into this because I dont know if Mormons subscribe to that whole nonsense about Israel needing to be restored to its original boundries to facciltate the 2nd coming of Christ. (or the 1st if your a jew)
Because continual war on such a basis seems about as sane to me as invading Norway to get at their stockpile of trolls or declaring war on Lapland unless they reveal the location and propulsion systems of Father Christmas.

Or Scotland to get whiskey!

(I believe John Paul Jones actually did that in the American Revolutionary War. It was our first invasion!)

I didn't watch any of the DNC last night because of the game but I found Bill Clinton's speech on YouTube this morning. It's long but it impresses. Clinton is an interesting guy. I have a lot of respect for him and his track record.



The BBC's North America editor also has an interesting opinion piece on the speech.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19498923

Eldorion wrote: It's long but it impresses. Clinton is an interesting guy.

That's what she said.

There's a reason he's so popular.

John Kerry apparently leveled up after the 2004 election! It would have been nice to see this Kerry back then. I loved how he went after Romney for flip-flopping, of all things. Some great zingers are contained within.

I watched Obamas speech. He is a very good speaker indeed. Even I felt uplifted and Im a crabbit old bugger and I hate all that American Dream nonsene- apart from anything else if it worked for everyone the whole system would fall apart overnight.
So putting aside a lot of the U S A rhetoric (and Obama actually included more of it than I think Romney did, but with much more skill) he still seemed to be a man with a plan- and that was the biggest difference between his speech and Romney- the Republicans have identified lots of stuff they dont like but have precious few clear policies it has seemed to me on what they are actually going to do, at least stuff that is not just undoing everything Obama has done.

I really hope Obama has another 4 years in the WH.

Eldorion wrote:Anyway ... that was longer than I intended and I hope I didn't come off as too angry or anything. Just a lot of pent-up cynicism pouring out.

Never even noticed. I just thought a wild wind had surfaced as i read it and made my hair into knots.

Amen.

A secretly filmed video showing Mitt Romney appearing to disparage Barack Obama supporters at a private donor dinner has been published online.
The US Republican nominee is shown saying the 47% of people who do not pay US income tax would never vote for him.
"I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," he says."There are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. "
"Because they voted for him, they don't want to be told that they were wrong, that he's a bad guy, that he did bad things, that he's corrupt," he says.

"It's hard to serve as president for all Americans when you've
disdainfully written off half the nation," Jim Messina, Mr Obama's
campaign manager, said in a statement.- BBC

Romney's latest foot-in-mouth incident is even more pathetic when compared to the FDR quote two posts above it.

Interestingly the BBC report left out some of Romney's worst lines in the speech- but Fox reported it more fully, how odd-particulalry where he says of the 47% that his job as a presidential candidate was "not to worry about those people."